The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-30

menr. 1t was discovered that a number of peo-
pie living in the building either dead
| dying from the effects of smoke and flames.
| The firemen and police soon began carrying out
! unconscious bodies until eleven people had been
| removed. The list of the injured who will die
is as follows:
| NELSON TRUGO, ABEL TRUGO,
NELSON TRUGO, JR., DELLA TRUGO.
ELIZA TRUGO. JOSEPH TRUGO,
MR.. BONNER. MRS. BONNER.
PHILIP BONNER An unknown girl,
MRS TRUGO, MRS. BONNER.
MARIA TRUGO, aged two years, taken
dead.
The fire started in Hefen's bake-shop, in the
basement Heffen and his family occupied the
second story, but they all managed to escape in
safety. The unfortunate Trugo family resided
on the third floor, in the rear, while the Bon
ners lived on the top floor The four surviving
Trugo children were badly suffocated. Their
recovery is doubtful Nelson Trugo attempted
to lower his wife and two-year- old baby out of
a second-stoI window, but the rope was short
ands the and child hung suspended
in midair, surrounded by flames. Captain
Cowan of truck No 8. seeing their perilous posi-
ton. rushed up ladder and attempted to rescue
them, but sudden outburst of smoke enveloped
them, and the Captain woman and child fell in
the flames. Willing hands dragged them out
and the Captain was found to be terribly burned
about the face, hands and feet. He also inhaled
large quantity of hot air, and is thought to be
fatally injured The mother so badly burned
that she succumb bed to her INJURIES a few min
utes later. A young girl named Annie Drew,
aged eighteen, who boarded with the Trugo fam
lily, was carried downstairs by the fremen She
is badly injured, but will A pot of
grease boiling overset stove the CAUSE
of the fire.
The story Of the attempted rescue of Mrs.
Trueo and her babe, described in later
counts. is of peculiar horror and pathos.
The police and firemen had rescued her hus-
band and four eldest children, but she was, in
some manner, readily ascrbable to the confu-
sion of the moment neglected. Left with her
two-year old baby. the poor woman resorted
the window. fireman saw her, and plunging
back through the smoke he returned to her
chamber. All escape from the with such
burden as a woman and child was impossible.
He thought OF the BEDFORD, and tearing it out,
bound the woman and her baby with it, and
pushed them through the window. He payed
out the rope until, from the heat and smoke, he
was ready to fall to the floor when he fastened
the upper end the bed-post and fed.
Far from accomplishing his gallant pur-
pose, he had but too surely comprised
the destruction of those be sought
to His rope was too short, and instead of
dropping the woman and child to the ground
within reach of those below, he had suspended
them in front of first-foor window from which
the fire poured from a furnace door She
swung there ten or twelve feet from the ground,
writhing, shriekine, struggling the fire swept
off her garments, choked and actually broiled
alive, the baby il her arms. By the most Singh
lar fatality, the flames which destroying
her, left the rope intact 1t became q necessity,
If not to save the woman, to at least remove the
revolving sight This duty assumed by
Capt William H. Cowan. of truck No s, who
might have ordered another man the task. but
who chose to chance the fate which he twas told
by the Mortified spectators awaited his efforts.
Selling ladder he threw 1t up to the blazing
window. and with an ak mounted and stood on
its blazing rugs. He deliberately entered the
flames. and they encircled him from helmet
to boots, ne struck at the rope. He could not
see and struck with inaccurate aim Once,
twice. as the clothing fell from him, he struck
in vain. At the third stroke the blade cut
the rope simultaneously the burning ladder
broke and the tree blazing human beings fell to
the ground The baby already dead, the
mother dying few hours later, and the Cap
tain lies In his home in what is thought to be his
death agonies.
Two bakers, Essen and Ansbetcher who are
believed be RESPONSE BILE for the neglect which
caused the fire, have been arrested. The police |
say the pair had become drowsy from drink,
and instead of watching the stove, fell into
they and the tenants above were a: the mercy